Wynnewood, PA – Renovus Capital Partners, L.P. (“Renovus” or the “Fund”) announced today the acquisition of EDIC College, Inc. (“EDIC”). Renovus is an education-focused private equity firm based outside of Philadelphia, PA.
EDIC is a leading career college offering associate’s degrees and certificates in a variety of health-related fields. The school has approximately 1,500 students across two campuses in Caguas, Puerto Rico.
Founded in 1987, EDIC is accredited by the Accrediting Council of Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS), a national accreditor of colleges throughout the United States. Students attending EDIC are eligible to participate in the U.S. Department of Education’s Title IV program, including both Stafford loans and Pell grants. EDIC students primarily rely upon Pell grants, a federal program offering up to $5,550 per academic year in grants to low-income students, to cover 85%+ of their tuition.
“As our first investment for the Fund, we thought it was important to focus on a sector and market that we knew well,” added Bradley Whitman, a Renovus founder and former board member of several other Puerto Rican career colleges. “Puerto Rican career colleges offer the best deal in higher education in the United States. Students graduate debt free and have a great chance of getting a good job in a market where unemployment is 15%.”
“We thought EDIC was an ideal investment opportunity within Puerto Rico,” concluded Atif Gilani, a Renovus founder. “The school has grown consistently over the past several years, and their focus on health-care education positions them well given job-growth in that sector. Most importantly, the school has graduation and placement rates well above the industry averages.”
Financing for the transaction was provided by Scotiabank, a leading Canadian commercial bank with a strong presence in Puerto Rico. Renovus’ investment was provided by their private limited partners and LMI debentures from the U.S. Small Business Administration. Given that the school serves a low income community, the investment qualified for LMI debentures, a special category of debt financing that is available to SBIC funds, currently priced at a five-year interest rate of 1.5%.
Renovus, via its wholly owned subsidiary Renovus Holdings I, LLC, effected its acquisition of EDIC by purchasing all outstanding shares of capital stock of EDIC by merging a subsidiary with and into EDIC, with EDIC surviving the merger. The merger was completed on March 1, 2012. Additional information about the merger will be made available by EDIC or Renovus upon request.
DLA Piper, Dickstein Shapiro and O’Neill Borges advised Renovus on the transaction while McConnell Valdes advised EDIC.